A MAN was caught with indecent images of children on his mobile phone when he took it into a shop for a new battery. Partially sighted Gary Roydhouse, 30, took his iPhone 3 into mobile phone repair shop Stuff Ltd, in South Street, Hull city centre, on September 29 last year.
He left it in the store to have the battery replaced, and a member of staff took a photograph of a colleague with the phone to check the new battery was working.
When he went into the picture folder to delete the photograph, he saw indecent images of children. He found more when he looked in another folder and called police.
Hull Crown Court heard that when Roydhouse was arrested, he told officers: "I knew it. They should block those websites, not just warn you."
Police found other indecent images when they seized two laptop computers from Roydhouse.
There were 309 images in total, with 29 at Category A, the most serious.
They also found a number of child sex search terms in his Google search engine, and a disk cleaner had been installed.
Roydhouse, of Williamson Street, east Hull, declined to comment when interviewed by police.
But he later admitted three counts of making indecent images between June 1, 2009, and September 19 last year.
After reading a pre-sentence report, Judge Mark Bury said to Roydhouse's barrister, Steven Garth: "He's exceptionally vulnerable, isn't he?"
"And inadequate," said Mr Garth.
The judge told Roydhouse: "Ordinarily, I would consider a prison sentence in your case.
"However, I have read a pre-sentence report that says you are an extremely vulnerable man.
"You had special educational needs, you are, to some extent, agoraphobic, you have severe autism and it seems to me you rely very heavily on your mother.
"You would not fare well in a prison environment.
"It seems to me that, because the number of images in this case is reasonably modest, I can draw back from passing a sentence of imprisonment.
"The order of the court will be that you be placed on a community order of two years' duration with a two- year supervision order.
"The reason is to try to get you to realise that offending like this is serious, and although you have not yourself abused any child, somebody must have done to create the images.
"I'm told by your mother there's no internet access in the house any more and I'm pleased to hear that, because with you not having very much to do in the day, temptation can be ruled out.
"Mr Roydhouse, if there is any further behaviour like this, vulnerable or not, you would have to go to prison, do you understand?"
"Mmm," Roydhouse replied.
He was also made subject to a sexual offences prevention order and must sign the sex offenders register for five years.
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